Secret Burial
by Higurazel
Summary: Outcastshipping (Thief King Bakura X Kisara) - Near-future espionage AU. Famed terrorist "The Thief King" Bakura breaks into the Pharaoh's palace to secure information on what truly happened in Kul Elna all those years ago. While there, he uncovers something new and terrifying buried within the palace depths.


_[Transcript of interview between Minister of Internal Security Karim and Home Affairs Minister Akhenaden following the "Exhumed" incident.]_

_Interrogation chamber 1B._

_2__nd__ December 2097_

_02:31 a.m._

_**Akhenaden**__: So. Please explain to me, for the record, just how a known terrorist was able to not only exhume the cadaver of our former leader. Not only break into the Pharaoh's palace with said cadaver. But to then also vanish before he could be caught._

_**Karim**__: I can only blame myself, sir. We had no idea that he would be so bold as to-_

_**Akhenaden**__: The man is dangerous criminal and a wanted fugitive. You can't tell me you didn't think he was capable of this! The moment he poked his head out of whatever dunghill he lives in, your men should have been there!_

_**Karim**__: As I said, I can only blame myself sir. If the council calls for my resignation I-_

_**Akhenaden**__: Oh how very fucking noble. The ship has sailed on that, I'm afraid. By the time we've finished our deliberations I'll be surprised if you see sunlight ever again. All issues regarding this "Thief King" have now been put under my jurisdiction. You will find that I have just the means to deal with it._

_**Karim**__: So your pet project finally came to fruition?_

_**Akhenaden**__: You'll be in chains by the time Operation Sapphire goes live. It's a shame. It will be a truly glorious sight. Guards, please escort Ex-Minister Karim to his holding cell._

_[Transcript ends.]_

* * *

Bakura fastened his harness to the elevator cable, hiking his heavy bag up onto his shoulder before making the descent. Floor after floor of cold black metal sped by on his way down, each one housing miles of corridors and probably hundreds of heavily armed security forces. He gripped the harness lever tight as he reached his destination, slowing to a gradual stop some twenty floors below the ground.

The grating ahead of him took only a few seconds to remove, and he slid himself into the metal shaft beyond, hooking his feet into the loops of his bag to drag it behind him as he crawled along. If his intel was correct, it would be a good fifteen minutes of crawling through tight ducts, taking a left, a right, another right and another left before he would reach his destination – The palace databanks. Every little black secret that the Pharaoh and his underlings had at home and abroad in one convenient location. It was almost too easy.

He finally came to the last grating, a few metal slats separating him from the most valuable treasure he had ever stolen. He checked his watch, if everything had gone according to plan, in thirty seconds the bug would go live and start playing a loop of footage through the cameras. It was only a five minute lifespan, but he could be in and out by then, provided there were no setbacks. He got to work on the grating, pulling it up into the duct with him at the exact moment his earpiece chirruped, signalling the bug taking over. He slowly lowered himself in headfirst, taking a look around. No one home. All the guards would be patrolling, with a few stationed outside the door. Bakura grinned and shook his head, they were just asking for trouble if they were going to be this relaxed.

Gripping the edge of the opening to support himself, he dropped down into the room, squatting as he landed, just one more silent shadow in a darkened room.

It was cramped, filled with server racks and dimly whirring blocks of circuitry. A lot of this stuff looked like a hold-over from a century ago. The carpet seemed even older… Bakura crept between two banks of servers, finding his way to an access terminal and logging in with his stolen credentials.

[HAND SCAN REQUIRED FOR CONFIRMATION]

Bakura opened up his bag and pulled out the stiffening chunk of meat wrapped in plastic. He unwrapped the severed forearm and inspected its palm for any signs of damage. Perfect. Fresh too. The official he had taken it from was probably still sleeping off the effects of the drugs Bakura had injected him with. By the time he came to, sealed up in one of the valley's many tombs… Well, only having one arm was probably going to be the least of his troubles…

Bakura pressed the palm to the green pad at the side of the screen, finding himself greeted with a plethora of cascading information panels and interfaces. He unceremoniously dropped the limb to the ground, going about his business of locating every last shred of information he could find regarding "The Kul Elna Incident".

File after file. Document after document. Videos, photographs, transcripts of interviews, military logistical orders. It was all his for the taking. He slid his data-jack into the port, setting everything he needed to transfer over. Just a minute or two more and he could-

"They will know you were here."

The voice, quiet and airy, kicked Bakura straight into his instincts. He wheeled on the spot, hand falling to his side holster and pulling out his lightweight handgun in an instant. It wasn't a human being in front of him, at least, not entirely. It was humanoid in shape, but it seemed to be composed entirely of light, the edges running like dry ice, sapping the dim ambient light and the blinking of the computer LEDs. It looked like a young woman, slender and pale with long, brilliant white hair. The face was hard to make out, as the eyes leaked out a constant stream of overly bright blue – It left colourful lacerations that lingered on when Bakura shut his eyes, calling to mind the same sensation one gets when glancing at the sun.

"What the hell are you?" He demanded, dropping the safety on his pistol.

"They will know you were here." The apparition repeated.

"No shit," Bakura lowered his gun a little, aiming for the figure's neck. It was getting too painful to look it in the eye. "I never leave without a little fanfare."

"They will try and catch you."

"They always do. And they always fail."

"But not this time."

"Going to have to disagree with you on that, miss- Or… Whatever you are. By the time the explosives I brought with me go off, I'll be long gone and every guard that isn't in pieces will be running in panic."

"They will not send men to catch you. Not this time." The figure sounded almost sorrowful, tilting its head to one side and looking at the monitor behind Bakura.

Quiet beeps and whirrs emanated from the machine, new screens flashing up and scrolling across. Bakura took his eyes off the girl, turning to the terminal and seeing a full list of files under the directory "Project Sapphire". He snatched out his data-jack, just as the screen filled with streaming footage from a facility within the palace – Something resembling a hospital ward. Beds lined each wall, each of them filled with screaming patients, their faces covered, their arms bound at their sides. Numerous pipes fed into their bodies, pumping dark coloured liquids. The footage wasn't clear enough to show whether it was being pumped in or out of them, and Bakura wasn't particularly eager to take a closer look. His eyes moved to the bed at the centre of the screen, surrounded by men and women in white coats, an enormous chrome machine spinning overhead, emitting blue sparks periodically. A girl lay on the bed, utterly lifeless. Hair, crisp and white pooled beneath her and-

"What the hell _is_ this!?" Bakura demanded, wheeling back to the apparition.

"The information you have now will avenge your family, but it will not save them." The sounds of the patients screaming intensified, building to a sickening crescendo. "Save them. Save us. Save me." The figure began to fade, until it was like the dying glow in a lightbulb. "Run."

It said something else, but the voice had dwindled away so badly as to make it almost imperceptible. Three words, muffled, ending with "-coming". He didn't get too long to ponder over it before the alarms kicked in. Face screwed up in fury, Bakura looked upwards, the security camera overhead blinking a tiny red light.

"Ten minutes my ass!" He shouted, arming the charges in his bag and kicking it between two server banks. The sound of the door sliding open reached him, along with two guards charging in. A couple of expertly placed headshots and they were taken care of – No forethought or malice, just instinct. Bakura took a running start, leaping up the vent and hoisting himself up, dragging himself back into the vent and snaking his way back to the elevator shaft. It was easier going without having to lug that heavy bag of explosives and body parts with him along the way now, but there was now the ever present threat of some canny guard firing a well-placed shot up into the ducts and nailing him.

"It's always something," he muttered under his breath, taking the first of his turns to reach the exit.

* * *

The sounds of klaxons and alarms filled the air by the time he reached the elevator shaft, although strangely, most of them seemed to be coming from below. Bakura had expected the pharaoh's security forces to be on full alert topside, but all the commotion was coming from the lower levels.

Then came the other sounds. The rush of air. The screams. The gunfire. The eerie silence.

Bakura pulled himself out of the vent and onto the access ladder at the side of the shaft. Just as long as they weren't shooting at him, maybe he could get out of here in one piece. In and out of the Pharaoh's palace without so much as a scratch twice within one week, he worked hard for the title of "King of Thieves".

That initial sound came again, the rush of air, like something heavy dropping down a chute. The air was clear above, no obstructions, no movement. Bakura shut his eyes and held his breath, turning his head to look over his shoulder and down into the abyss of the elevator shaft.

It pulled itself up with one surge of its huge wings before attaching itself to the wall, claws gouging great holes in the steel. A massive reptilian beast, struggling to unfurl its wings fully within the confines of the shaft. Even in the darkness, its white scales were gleaming with an almost wet sheen and its cold blue eyes darted from side to side, searching, hunting. They fixed on Bakura, and the creatures jaws started to open, revealing row after row of serrated teeth, and a crackling blue fire down in its gullet.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me…" Bakura wheezed.

With the hissing sound of air molecules super-heating and evaporating, the dragon let out a blast of its destructive breath, azure flames thundering upwards, scorching the metal walls and showing no signs of stopping as they closed in on the Thief King.

* * *

_[Transcript of conversation between Home Affairs Minister Akhenaden and Sciences Minister Mahado.]_

_Lab 14G._

_9__th__ December 2097_

_**Akhenaden**__: Now, I'm sorry, but what do you mean by "Vanished"?_

_**Mahado**__: Exactly that. No trace was found of the Thief King at the site. All we were able to find were a few spent bullet casings in the data suite, and they were badly warped by the fire. That and one or two seconds of grainy footage from the surface security cameras that show him leaping the fence while the Blue Eyes White Dragon crawled out of the… Rather sizeable crater in the facility floor._

_**Akhenaden**__: With our interior guard __**and**__ Project Sapphire, that savage was able to crawl in here unnoticed and destroy countless terabytes of information!? _

_**Mahado**__: Precisely. It appears she wasn't quite up to our expectations._

_**Akhenaden**__: Or, more accurately, we weren't using her correctly._

_**Mahado**__: Minister?_

_**Akhenaden**__: Prep the girl again, we're sending that dragon out on a little hunting trip to the desert…_

_[Transcript ends.]_


End file.
